Punchless Flyers fall to Rangers

New York Rangers left wing Carl Hagelin (62), from Sweden, fends off Philadelphia Flyers center Brayden Schenn (10) as Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30) , from Sweden, defends the crease in the first period of their NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

NEW YORK - To say that the Flyers’ power play is lacking punch is the same as saying this team misses the injured Scott Hartnell, should have re-signed impatient free agent Jaromir Jagr and could soon excercise its right to a free trade solution.

More evidence pointing to such obvious conclusions was displayed yet again Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. In a winnable game that teased them until the end, the Flyers fell to the Rangers 2-1, their path to a fifth loss in seven short-season starts as easy to break down as any other postmortum this season.

Save for a seven-goal explosion against a disinterested Florida Panthers team Saturday night, the Flyers are losing because they can’t score enough. But it doesn’t require great observational powers to realize these losses have been built from the special teams on out.

“Special teams, I think, are even more important this year,” Mike Knuble said. “Teams that can kill penalties are going to do well and teams that can score on the power play are going to do well. That was evident in Tampa the other night (a 5-1 loss Sunday) and it was evident tonight.”

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Most facets of the Flyers power play are disturbingly clear. They don’t shoot enough because they lack confidence or are too cautious. They don’t score enough because they’re failing to get traffic in front of the opposing goaltenders.

Never were those things as evident as on a two-man Flyers power play in the second period that went on for 1:17 of nerve-shattering time for the Garden faithful. When that stretch was over, though, they were on their feet cheering, the Flyers having held the puck too tightly in the attack zone the whole time ... producing only two shots on goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

The Flyers thus failed to tie the game, and not four minutes later, a power play goal by Ryan Callahan would put the Rangers right where they needed to be.

“It was very deflating to give up a (power play) goal ... and we had our 5-on-3 chance and it doesn’t go,” Knuble said. “To be honest, it wasn’t a big threat, either. We know we have the guys that can make plays and do it, but that’s a big moment in the game. That’s huge tonight.”

When the Flyers did get shots off, both even strength and during their six power play chances on the night, most came from Danny Briere. His wrist getting better every day, Briere was outstanding, getting 10 shots off ... only to see Lundqvist (26 saves) fend them all off.

“I had a couple of good chances, but, you know, it’s Lundqvist,” Briere said. “Most goalies, it would have been a two- or three-goal night. ... I’m going to keep shooting. It’s not good for my shooting percentage but I’m going to keep shooting.”

Going into this rather critical early-short-season game, the Flyers were ranked 24th of 30 league clubs on the power play, and 27th on the penalty kill. All of that seemed to not matter at 7:09 into the third period, however, when on a power play, Kimmo Timonen snuck into the slot alone and waited for someone to get him the puck. That was lost in a maze of bodies in the corner until Wayne Simmonds found it and zipped it back to Timonen. His subsequent wrist shot went past Lundqvist to cut a two-goal Rangers lead in half.

“That’s winning a battle,” Knuble pointed out. But the Flyers would have two more power play chances in the third period, and wouldn’t win the day, despite prime penalty killer Callahan gone after suffering an apparent left shoulder injury.

But despite a few back-and-forth rushes on those late power plays, the Rangers essentially had no trouble bogging the Flyers down. They went 1-for-6 on the power play on the night, and are 5 for 37 (13.5 percent) on the season.

Not good enough.

“We’ll have to sit back and look at what we can do better on it,” Briere said. “We have to find a way to get better shots.”

The Rangers struck first on an even-strength situation. Benn Ferrierro got a puck out to the point, where Michael Del Zotto was all alone. Using Brian Boyle as a screen, Del Zotto seemed to half-hit the shot, but it slipped past the fooled (or screened) Ilya Bryzgalov at 1:57 of the first for a 1-0 lead.

Then midway through the second, Callahan scored off a rebound of another Del Zotto power play shot, that one making it 2-0 at 11:31 of the period.

After that, Bryzgalov put on a clinic in the crease, but without enough a power charge from his teammates when given the chance, it would go all for naught again.

Of course, this loss wasn’t only special. The Rangers, as usual, blocked a lot of shots (though not as many as the Flyers), and really had the edge in faceoffs. The Flyers won just 21 of 60 faceoffs on the night. Moreover, the game was only close because once again, Bryzgalov was very sharp.

“I can guarantee you, if Bryz keeps playing the same way we’ll be in really good shape,” Briere said, “because at some point we’re going to start scoring goals.”